Leveling up: Technology and Influence

Want to be a clever gifter? Try this classy fake out on the littlest to the biggest kid in your life.

Tired of reading all our food, holiday, and other such “mommy blog” things (though, I dare you to call us that to our faces!)? Well, get your clappers ready, because this is a – wait for it – technology piece (with aspirations of being a good ole’ soul search)!

Yes, indeed. Its 2014 and I’m just as tech savvy as I never was! It just so happens that I’ve had some significant upgrades to my “tech tool chest” by happy accident.

This way ——–> to the land of Apple memes and more!

A few weeks ago, I was forced to buy a new mobile phone (iPhone 5s) after my iPhone 5 from 2012 repeatedly fritzed out. I tried to hack it along, but one can only get so far when the lone button stops working. It was pretty much down hill from there.

All a big mystery as there seemed to be both hardware and software issues involved, but I felt like chasing after my kids into the Apple Store was a fair, full, and honest disclosure: draw what conclusions they may!

In 2010 I might have been a reluctant smart phone buyer, but it is safe to say I’m utterly dependent on that compact machine today. It is my main photographing, emailing, e-reading, calculating, weather checking, facebooking, twittering, GPSing, calling, texting, music listening, calendaring, child distracting, grocery listing, alarm clocking device, and then some.

if only

In fact, considering it gets more use than my “new” laptop (In January, I got John’s cast-off and relegated my 2nd generation 13 inch Macbook Air to Roenne’s glorified typewriter and Rainbow Loom tutorial videos viewer), it seems rather worth the cost of a new phone to make sure my most useful piece of technology is dependable and performing well.

The recycle program even gave me $210 for my dysfunctional iPhone 5, which chose to perform beautifully right at the moment my Apple crack dealer had to check off the “all the buttons are working” box for the buy back (happiness!).

By now, you are either drooling or spitting on my shiny upgrades. What can I say? We are sold out to Apple products with no turning back. Every time I have to use a PC or teach my mom how to do something on her *other* smart phone, this fact is reaffirmed.

Shout out to Christian (your name is kinda perfect for my meme!) at The Apple Store, Lenox Mall: one day, you too, can be as cool as this guy! On a serious note, you were super helpful, thanks!

I rule over cleanliness and food consumption with obnoxious zeal in our home and John wears the bossy pants on technology. Seems fair enough since it is the business of how he makes a living. Therefore, when he, who has programed both on PCs and Macs, even going so far as working for Dell, Inc in 2006/07, says he will only spend his income on Apple products, the rest of us shrug and happily do as we are told (most of the time).

The one thing I have found myself pondering after my unapologetic technology spree was, “What will the impact be on the next generation of Saddingtons?” They are getting the benefits of using high quality products, but we have basically created brand loyalty and maybe dependency for their futures. From there materialized this small thought bubble:

At least we had a choice

They grow up with Apple, trust it, like it, are used to it, and depend on it to do things…its no wonder people liken Apple fandom as the Cult of Apple, its the epitome of religion!

We’ve been fairly intentional about sharing the tenants of Christianity with our kids, explaining what we believe, bible stories, prayers, etc, but made it clear that they will have to make their own choices of what to bet their faith bucks on when they are ready. Each person’s story is unique and personal–there in lies the beauty of free will (Here, my 3 year old nods sagely, or maybe we’ve only discussed it with the 7 year old. Choose your on adventure).

Not so much with brand awareness–by weaving the product use into our daily lives without any discussion about choice (You get what you get, and you don’t pitch a fit!), have we made the adoption of the Apple brand…automatic?

True, there are worse things we could accidentally wire into their world view, but it never hurts to pause and examine our sub conscious choices and their possible effects.

Is there an area of influence that you might be taking for granted?

Attempting to conjure up an imaginary conversation about brand choice with my small people already feels awkward and silly, but I feel pretty good about being newly conscious about offering the perspective at the right time. Perhaps a field trip to a tech super store is in order, surely they’ll figure it out from there…

Roenne, age 3.5. April 2010 picture shot from my first smart phone (iPhone 3), purchased only a few short months before this was taken and pro editing done on Skitch. I’m also pretty sure I published via Posterous, lulzz.